An invention has been made that is related generally to negotiable instruments such as bank checks and is related specifically to the ways and means of recording and presenting information on negotiable instruments.
Financial instruments, negotiable documents, bank notes, including bank checks, counter checks, money orders and the like, present problems for their users. The institutional users who process the documents as well as the writers of the documents, suffer from limitations of currents designs. A first problem is the limited automation that is possible in the clearance house processing of the documents. A significant amount of manual input from human operators is required in the processing steps. A second problem is the possibility of use of the documents by fraudulent persons. A third problem is the difficulty involved in writing a document for people without sufficient writing skills.
To address the first problem, it is desirable to make the information on a check, machine readable. Several forms of data that is in a format usable by machines are well known. In fact, it has become commonplace in most industries to use the high speed and accuracy of computer automation to simplify business transactions. Many operations that were previously performed manually by a human operator, are now being accomplished automatically by machines. Generally, it is required for a change in the way that information is used to accompany new machine processes. For example, a common price tag with human usable numeric data is sometimes replaced by machine usable data in the form of an optical pattern. Today, even neighborhood grocery stores have product labels that have been coded with machine usable information that can be quickly and efficiently read by a machine at the checkout counter. A well known "bar code" pattern can be found, on products for sale at retail stores; on a company's assets that are subject to inventory control; and even on identification cards, such as student or library cards. A machine can access information coded into the bar pattern in an instant and proceed with desired transactions based on that information. A bar code pattern can not be read by a human operator, nor is it practical for a human to write a bar code pattern. The pattern is designed to be read and to be written by various machines.
In some applications, it is desirable for a human operator to be able to produce the data that can be later read by a machine. For example, a student taking an examination can code the answers onto a special answer sheet that can be read by a machine. By "blackening" bubble areas with letters that correspond to particular answers, an optical pattern is generated that can be machine read. The machine quickly identifies the questions answered correctly and questions answered incorrectly, thereby affecting accurate machine scoring. From a completed answer sheet, another person for example an instructor, could not readily decipher the coded answers. Once an answer sheet is prepared, it is meant to be read by a machine.
Sometimes it is desirable for humans to read-back the data that has been previously recorded. It is well known to use optical character recognition, OCR systems for these applications. Other systems are also possible. At the bottom of most bank checks is a line of numbers corresponding to account information. The numerals are written in a special font, for example Farrington 7B font, that can be read by either human users or by machine processors. Sometimes the machine reading means employs an optical scheme, but more commonly it is a magnetic means of identifying the digits of the numeral. With these systems, it is possible for a bank teller (human user) to read the account number printed on the bottom of a check during a personal visit of a customer, and it is also possible for a machine processor to read the number and gain access to the correct account information. To use characters that can be recognized by both human and machine, it is required that the characters of the special font be evenly spaced and for the line thicknesses that make up the character to be accurately positioned and controlled. Although it is possible for both human users and machine processors to read, it is prohibitively difficult for a human user to write the characters. The characters must be printed with high quality printing means and with special inks. Character recognition mechanisms are quite useful for data that is redundant from check-to-check; for example, the check writers account number. The number can be machine printed in the special font when the checks are printed by the institution issuing them. For data that is different from check-to-check, the font is not easily produced by the check writer. The check writer must enter the amount of the check: by hand. The resulting data is variable in its appearance, and the machines that recognize the fonts described above, cannot recognize the numerals that have been written by the check writer's hand.
There is a second major problem with the way that data is recorded on negotiable instruments. The information written by a check writer is susceptible to tampering by fraudulent persons.
If a document of the art is prepared for a certain amount by the proper writer of the check, it is possible that the data could be later altered to increase that amount. Sometimes a person can use a similar pen as the check writer and simply add to the writings made previously. Advanced techniques include a cut-and-paste method wherein even machine printed entries can be changed to increase the amount of the check. Of course, the practice is illegal and would result in a loss for either the bank or the writer of the check. Hand written data and information entities on common checks are subject to tampering.
It is a second possible source of fraud for banks to make changes in accounting procedures. A new procedure can be found to have accounting loopholes which allow users of the procedure to commit theft. Successful methods are those that have met the test of time and it is a tendency for-institutions to want to keep old methods. Because of the possibility of fraud, there is a string-reluctance for banks to convert to automation. For this reason, it is imperative that a new system take into account the old methods and that the new system is compatible with those old methods. Redundancy should be built into new methods so that old methods can be fully used as the new methods are learned and trust in those methods is gained.
A third problem with the documents of the known art is that in order to prepare them, a writer must have sufficient language skills to spell out the amount of the check in words. Foreigners and others without the ability to print words in the English language could not prepare a check properly with the old system. The system of the current invention does not require these written skills and is therefore simpler to use.